Booker says he'll bring spirit of 'entrepreneurship' to the Senate

If he is elected to the Senate, Newark Mayor Cory Booker says he will bring a spirit of “entrepreneurship” that the federal government lacks.

As mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, Booker said, he has worked outside the typical boundaries of government, and he promises to bring that “innovation” to the Senate.

In a meeting with The Record’s editorial board Tuesday, Booker framed many of the country’s major problems – including education, the environment, crime and health care – around his experiences working in urban areas.

“There’s no urban agenda being talked about at the national level,” he said.

Booker said many of his accomplishments came from going beyond “my statutory duties as mayor” — partnering with non-profits and businesses to create programs outside the normal city government.

“One of the best things that we decided to do early on was we said that we can’t just do a mayor’s job as the statutes of this state give us,” he said. “We’ve got to be entrepreneurial, we’ve got to be innovative and we’ve got to figure out ways of getting things done that people might think are very unorthodox.”

In one example he cited, the city worked with other groups to encourage residents to report illegal guns. The program allowed a resident to anonymously report a firearm, and if police confiscated the gun, the person who reported it could go to an ATM and withdraw $1,000 using a code provided by the system.

“That’s a great innovation,” Booker said. “You can’t do it with government because, as you all know, there are a whole bunch of reporting requirements for the transfer of funds.”

The mayor is running in the Aug. 13 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, trying to defeat Rep. Frank Pallone, Rep. Rush Holt and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver. The winner will go on to an Oct. 16 special election Governor Christie called after Sen. Frank Lautenberg died last month.

Booker’s opponents have suggested he sounds good but does not deliver, and they criticize his celebrity status – he boasts 1.4 million Twitter followers and has made more than $1.3 million since 2008 giving speeches around the country.

At a campaign event with Pallone on Monday, Senator Lautenberg’s widow, Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, said that “being great on TV and raising money outside the state doesn’t mean that you’re going to be the most effective in the United States Senate.”

But Booker argued his celebrity would help him build political capital and alliances in the Senate faster than his opponents could.

“I’ve been told time and time again, ‘You’re going to be a different kind of freshman senator,’Ÿ” he said. “My ability to go in there and … create partnerships, from Day One, will be significant.”

He also used Englebardt Lautenberg’s criticism against his opponents.

“I listen to my opponents say, ‘I voted for,’ ‘I stood up for.’ ‘Well, to me it’s about getting things done,” he said. “There is a groundwork for someone different coming in: different perspectives, different life experiences”

On education, Booker said America needs to fix its system of “educational apartheid” that generally determines children’s outcomes based on their neighborhood, rather than their effort or ability.

“Kids born into certain ZIP codes will most likely have certain educational outcomes,” he said. “And we’ve got to end that. If we end that, we explode economic development.”

Booker argued that pollution is a particular problem for urban residents, too.

“I represent an area that lives with the daily agony of the environmental mistakes of the past,” he said. Newark residents are “separated from nature” because pollution prevents them from planting gardens in the city’s soil or fishing in the water. But he said he has not formed an opinion on the carbon tax that Holt proposed to try to fight global warming.

For Social Security, Booker said he opposes raising the retirement age for most people in the country – except, perhaps, for people in their 20s or younger – because the country made promises to them.

And he said he believes the federal government has gone too far in its secret surveillance programs, but he called Holt’s position that Congress should throw out the Patriot Act and start over “a little irresponsible.”

If he is elected to the Senate, Newark Mayor Cory Booker says he will bring a spirit of “entrepreneurship” that the federal government lacks.

As mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, Booker said, he has worked outside the typical boundaries of government, and he promises to bring that “innovation” to the Senate.

In a meeting with The Record’s editorial board Tuesday, Booker framed many of the country’s major problems – including education, the environment, crime and health care – around his experiences working in urban areas.

“There’s no urban agenda being talked about at the national level,” he said.

Booker said many of his accomplishments came from going beyond “my statutory duties as mayor” — partnering with non-profits and businesses to create programs outside the normal city government.

“One of the best things that we decided to do early on was we said that we can’t just do a mayor’s job as the statutes of this state give us,” he said. “We’ve got to be entrepreneurial, we’ve got to be innovative and we’ve got to figure out ways of getting things done that people might think are very unorthodox.”

In one example he cited, the city worked with other groups to encourage residents to report illegal guns. The program allowed a resident to anonymously report a firearm, and if police confiscated the gun, the person who reported it could go to an ATM and withdraw $1,000 using a code provided by the system.

“That’s a great innovation,” Booker said. “You can’t do it with government because, as you all know, there are a whole bunch of reporting requirements for the transfer of funds.”

The mayor is running in the Aug. 13 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, trying to defeat Rep. Frank Pallone, Rep. Rush Holt and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver. The winner will go on to an Oct. 16 special election Governor Christie called after Sen. Frank Lautenberg died last month.

Booker’s opponents have suggested he sounds good but does not deliver, and they criticize his celebrity status – he boasts 1.4 million Twitter followers and has made more than $1.3 million since 2008 giving speeches around the country.

At a campaign event with Pallone on Monday, Senator Lautenberg’s widow, Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, said that “being great on TV and raising money outside the state doesn’t mean that you’re going to be the most effective in the United States Senate.”

But Booker argued his celebrity would help him build political capital and alliances in the Senate faster than his opponents could.

“I’ve been told time and time again, ‘You’re going to be a different kind of freshman senator,’Ÿ” he said. “My ability to go in there and … create partnerships, from Day One, will be significant.”

He also used Englebardt Lautenberg’s criticism against his opponents.

“I listen to my opponents say, ‘I voted for,’ ‘I stood up for.’ ‘Well, to me it’s about getting things done,” he said. “There is a groundwork for someone different coming in: different perspectives, different life experiences”

On education, Booker said America needs to fix its system of “educational apartheid” that generally determines children’s outcomes based on their neighborhood, rather than their effort or ability.

“Kids born into certain ZIP codes will most likely have certain educational outcomes,” he said. “And we’ve got to end that. If we end that, we explode economic development.”

Booker argued that pollution is a particular problem for urban residents, too.

“I represent an area that lives with the daily agony of the environmental mistakes of the past,” he said. Newark residents are “separated from nature” because pollution prevents them from planting gardens in the city’s soil or fishing in the water. But he said he has not formed an opinion on the carbon tax that Holt proposed to try to fight global warming.

For Social Security, Booker said he opposes raising the retirement age for most people in the country – except, perhaps, for people in their 20s or younger – because the country made promises to them.

And he said he believes the federal government has gone too far in its secret surveillance programs, but he called Holt’s position that Congress should throw out the Patriot Act and start over “a little irresponsible.”